PAST TENSE - Book review

PAST TENSE

Lee Child

The 24^th Jack Reacher book, published 2018.  By chance, Reacher winds up in a small town called Laconia in New Hampshire. It was where his father was born. He decided to find the old place.  Not so easy. He gets the help of blonde detective Brenda Amos, but tracking down his father proves difficult.

Unconnected, a young Canadian couple get stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere – well, not too far from Laconia. The couple, Patty and Shorty, are being toyed with by the owners of the motel – but to what end? Was this a variation of the movie Vacancy? No, something else entirely; but just as suspenseful.

Inevitably, the two strands will entwine and when they do, blood will be spilled in true Reacher style.

For a brief while I thought Mr Child was coincidentally using a plot from my latest book Rogue Prey, which is seeking an agent or publisher; but happily there’s only a vague similarity.

This is a slow burn of a book with a satisfying ending.

THE SECOND SON - Book review

THE SECOND SON

Charles Sailor

Published in 1979, it has taken me forty years to get round to reading this challenging and excellent novel on my bookshelf.

Friendly, helpful charitable construction worker Joseph Turner is working on a 24-storey skyscraper when he saves the life of a friend, but in so doing falls to certain death. Miraculously, he survives the fall and thereafter he has to come to terms with his new-found powers, including his ability to heal. Within a short while he has an immense following. Joe realises that he cannot single-handedly help everyone. He asks people to find their own inner strength and to help themselves. A mixed message, at best.

The Pope seems to accept the possibility that Joe might be a – or the – Messiah, but others in Rome are not so sure. Powers in Rome and in Washington DC see Joe as a threat and a hired killer is despatched to deal with Joe.

A riveting story (no pun intended) that poses the question: What would we do if a new Messiah did walk among us? There are several poignant moments and heartfelt grief. Joe made a difference. Maybe that is all any of us can ask.

It was optioned as a movie but it was never made.

LAST LIGHT - Book review

 LAST LIGHT

Alex Scarrow

A disaster novel published in 2007. It begins with a mystery in a New York hotel in 1999 and then moves to ‘the present’ where within the space of a week modern life as we know it crumbles. 

Andy Sutherland is a civilian engineer in Iraq when the oil wells in the Middle East are destroyed. Virtually simultaneously, others round the world are hit. Back in London, Andy’s wife Jenny is in Manchester for a job interview while their daughter Leona is at university and their young son Jacob is at boarding school. Andy swiftly realises that the concerted attacks on the oil supply are the beginning of a massive global disaster He warns his family to get together and stockpile food and water before people realise what is about to hit them.

Scarrow manages to keep the pages turning, also introducing an added threat: his email to Leona was intercepted and links back to that time in the NY hotel… Leona had recognised someone then which now makes her a high risk for some very powerful people.

The chapters are short – all ninety of them – and inject pace and anticipation as law and order dissolves and society disintegrates. Pitched against rebel forces, Andy and his small contingent have to fight their way out of Iraq. He desperately needs to get to his family, while his family are left to contend with looters and rioters. There are many tense moments for all involved.

There’s a lot of swearing, probably appropriate, considering the individuals and the dilemma they face: a global oil shortage. There’s also a conspiracy involved, similar to that posited in the film Batman Begins (2005). Since the book was written, the UK’s reliance on imported oil has diminished slightly; wind turbine power is proving a good alternative and at least the US has since become self-sufficient with its massive shale oil business…

There is a sequel, After Light (2011).

THE FAR ARENA - Book review

THE FAR ARENA

Richard ben Sapir

 

Published in 1979. An oil drill strikes into human flesh eight metres down in the Arctic ice. Against all the odds, a naked man  is dug out, completely preserved. The Texan Dr Lewellyn McCardle shipped the block of ice to Soviet Dr Semyon Fyodor Petrovitch, an expert in cryogenics. Petrovitch begins to thaw out the human specimen and discovers signs of EEG activity…

Interspersed with the medical aspects we delve into the mind of a renowned gladiator, Lucius Aurelius Eugenianus, who realises he has cheated death.

Eventually, the gladiator is brought to full recovery, but nobody can understand his ancient speech. They go to a convent and seek the help of Sister Olav, an expert.  They go to great lengths to ease the gladiator into the twentieth century and while they do so the relationship dynamic between this foursome is fraught, especially since the gladiator’s scruples are two thousand years old…

Without any friends or family, with the world so drastically changed, where can the Roman go? To Rome, perhaps, his old home. Where fresh torment awaits him.

Plenty of research is evident, plus a Roman glossary, and a lot of ethical questions are raised. Impressive.

BIRDLAND - Book review

BIRDLAND

Eric Adams

 

Published in 1997, Birdland is psychological suspense novel that concerns Katie Jacobs, who learns about Vincent, a long-lost brother, revealed to her during her mother’s deathbed confession.  Her mother had been involved in the Hitchcock film The Birds. Kate traces Vincent to Bodega Bay, the eerie Californian coastal town of the movie.  The past is raising its head, it seems as Kate finds that Vincent is unduly influenced by a local eccentric, Madame Charay, who is obsessed with all things Hitchcockian. Befriended by the local psychologist, Rob, Kate begins to unravel the convoluted threads of the past. 

The denouement is comparable to Hitchcock himself.